France, Take Two: This is a post about cats.

One of the many differences between life here and life at home is the way that French cats act. I would say that a good 90% of the time I walk either to or from Mariene's apartment, a strange cat (different each time) will see me and start meowing at me until I pet it. Once, a large gray cat followed me and Mariene back to her house where we played with it for a while, and then we we left it apparently stayed on her doorstep waiting for her to come out again. They're just way more shameless about wanting to play, I guess.

Our two cats here are really great. Sometimes they really don't want anything to do with us, and sometimes they won't leave you alone until you pet them. Another big difference between the two countries is that back home, our two cats Osgood and Penelope tend to sleep in tight little ball shapes, but here, Boule de Neige and Toundra (I think that's how they spell it) try to take up as much space as possible: